JAMorgan2008

I was eventually going to pick one up from BrownBox 189 plus tax, free ship http://www.brownbox.com/vizio-vtab1008-tablet-led-android-3-2-honeycomb-wifi-802-11n-microsd-flash-gps-w-folio-case/ but this one is cheaper and comes with HDMI cable as well! Thanks Woot!

blwnv8

I bought one of these from woot around the holidays. It says it's a refurb, but mine came lnib with plastic on the screen. I doubt mine was every touched by another consumer. It was completely dead when it arrived. This kinda scared me due to reading about how a few people on the different forums were talking about how they were doa. I charged it immediately and let it charge about an hr before I tried turning it on. To my relief it turned on w/out any problems. Mine came with 2.3 gingerbread running vizio's .56 software. It immediately wanted to update to .57 which really offered no new features, just seemed to kill root. I declined and had to put up with the annoying update screen every 5 mins or so. This went on for about a week or so while I decided if I wanted to try to root it. I couldn't take the popup any more and rooted my device. Rooting took less than 15 mins and was really easy following a guide from xda developers. I then bought titanium back up form the market to freeze the update. So that solved the software update issue. My next issue with the unit really drove me nuts. It would randomly come up with the black boot screen with the giant V. It would do it randomly whenever it felt like it. It would also do it pretty regularly when using the home button when exiting a app, such as the market or dolphin browser. From the best I could tell it was rebooting itself. This was extremely frustrating cause if you were posting on a forum or something on the web browser and this happened you would loose all your work or open web pages. I waited for about 3 months for the update to come to hopefully get 4.0 ice cream sandwich. I was kinda sad when they did finally announce the update was going to be 3.2 honeycomb. If you root your device and free your update service you won't get the ota update for honeycome unless you unfreeze the update service. I finally decided I'd had enough with the unit. I really liked the vtab but it had more potential than vizio was letting it show. I did not want to go through the hassle of unfreezing the update to start the install of honeycomb. Way to many people are having issues with the new honeycomb update. There are a bunch of bugs, seems like it's hit or miss for different users. Some people are saying it's great and others not so much. Doesn't seem to matter if you rooted your vtab or not, the issues are happening either way. I was also sad to hear users who upgraded to hc lost the use of the hard white buttons that used to rotate with the unit. Check out the vizio section over at androidtablets.net I've spent a lot of time over there, lots of good info. I decided to dump mine and sold mine for $150, $15 loss isn't too bad. I decided to go with a Toshiba Thrive. I do like the honeycomb on it but it's looking like it's getting a ics update hopefuly. Got my 16gb from a guy on craigslist for $300 lnib w/folio case, box+papers, and zagg screen protector. They do come up on woot for $250-280. I think it's money well spent if you can afford the difference. The full size usb, hdmi and sd card are worth the money alone. I love the thrive, it's amazing. I would but another vizio vtab if I could find one locally for $150-200, the gf really liked it. But only if it was from walmart or costco so I could return it if the honeycomb update bricked the unit or had other issues. But even for $150 for a vtab, Think I'd rather spend the extra $100 or so and get here a thrive refurb from woot.

DotX

Oh, same question. I have the desktop for powerful stuff. I want something I can watch the occasional video with, check in with gmail or gchat and a couple of forums. Some eReading in bed. Being able to lookup my knitting patterns on-the-go.

buffaloed

onefire wrote:Is it better to get this tablet or a Kindle Fire instead? I was going to get a Kindle Fire but maybe this is a better deal?

If I was forced to decide I'd go with the Vizio. At least it's a full-fledged tablet. The Kindle Fire is too restricted in what you can do with it. The problem with the Vizio is it's really underpowered and the viewing angle is limited. The Blackberry Playbook might be worth looking into.

geekwench

I love to read and my ebooks are Kindle, I read them on my kindle app on my phone. So I want to read Kindle on a tablet format, and be able to surf the web a little bit when I'm hooked up to the wifi at home. My needs are pretty basic, I just want to read and go online.

I really like my Kindle Fire, which I use mainly for reading, a little bit of web surfing, and occasionally for video. If you're a Prime customer, it may be the better option for you as you get free streaming video, daily [free] apps, etc.

However, this Vizio is slightly larger than the Kindle Fire, and you could install the Kindle application on it to use it for reading. As has been noted, this also has some features that the Kindle Fire lacks, including the ability to expand the storage (should you want to keep more content on your device, although you can, of course, archive your purchases to Amazon's cloud to free up space on any device to which you can download Amazon content).

I already have a Kindle Fire and a Toshiba Thrive (which is larger than the Vizio and has more horsepower), but if I were trying to decide between this Vizio and a Fire, it would probably be a tough call for me to make. I think I might possibly still lean towards the Fire because of the Prime content and Amazon's support, which is excellent, from everything I've heard. (Haven't needed to use it yet, but it's nice to know that it's there.) I also am more comfortable with apps I download from Amazon than anything I could get from Google Play- there is a metric crapton of malware in their app store.

Darkomandic raised some really good points about the features that aren't in the Fire, however. If nothing else, this is cheaper than a Kindle fire, and it comes with a case, cable, etc. I don't know if any of this is even helpful, but if nothing else, I hope it gave you some points for consideration.

ojohn

If you don't want to read through the 15 pages there, GET THE SQUARETRADE WARRANTY. I didn't for this although I do for some things. I wish I had it for this. :mad:

To keep it short, I thought it was great until the charging connector broke 1 week before the 90 days - the charging connector is the weak point of this tablet, with complaints all over the net. It just breaks. They sent me a second ref-urb one which won't connect to wi-fi. I am now on a third, they sent a new one, which is better than the 2nd but not as good as my first and I want it replaced too, or my money back.

I found that the ref-urbed ones have a peelable plastic protector on the screen, but new units have a different kind of peelable plastic on the screen and all around the unit.

Other users on that thread have had the same and other problems and some cannot get any warranty service from Vizio.

Avoid this, or get the Squaretrade warranty.

I am surprised that woot/amazon is selling, for a second time, this proven troublesome unit with proven troublesome warranty service.

xupthree60

This thing is overpriced. This same referbed unit sells for $50 more on new egg, but for 130 you can get a Iview 760gt.

The Iview is just as good or maybe better hardware, infact its basically the same hardware as a Galaxy s or Nexus s. Also has an official upgrade to ICS and both gingerbread and ICS versions are completely vanilla android with no bloatware.

frankiedf

I just wanted to add that I bought one of these last time it came up here and it was a fantastic decision.
For the money back then it was a great buy, for the money today after the gingerbread update it is a phenomenal deal.

dliidlii

frankiedf wrote:I just wanted to add that I bought one of these last time it came up here and it was a fantastic decision.
For the money back then it was a great buy, for the money today after the gingerbread update it is a phenomenal deal.

NOT Phenomenal when for $25 more you can get it NEW with 1 year warranty.

mrtoast98

I was all set to buy an Archos 80 G9 with Ice Cream Sandwich preinstalled, now this thing pops up tonight for $100 cheaper and I'm confused. The differences I see right off the bat are that the Archos has more memory, a faster dual-core CPU, built-in GPS, it's not a respiff, and of course it has ICS. Anyone care to speculate if these factors make it worth an extra C-note? Thanks.

Discord

editorkid

dliidlii wrote:NOT Phenomenal when for $25 more you can get it NEW with 1 year warranty.

Unless you've got yet anotherl link you aren't telling us about, you can't get it new for $25 more. You've told us about an Amazon sale in the past and a Costco sale that doesn't include the accessories plus all of the other costs ivanivanovich pointed out.

editorkid

The XDA thread about rooting this tablet is here, and if you're interested in YouTube videos giving you step-by-step instructions and other goodies, here's the Google results page for searching for root vtab1008.

After reading the first couple of pages of the thread, though, I'm still not quite sure what the benefit of rooting is.

dedicateddad

mrtoast98 wrote:I was all set to buy an Archos 80 G9 with Ice Cream Sandwich preinstalled, now this thing pops up tonight for $100 cheaper and I'm confused. The differences I see right off the bat are that the Archos has more memory, a faster dual-core CPU, built-in GPS, it's not a respiff, and of course it has ICS. Anyone care to speculate if these factors make it worth an extra C-note? Thanks.

rhmurphy

editorkid wrote:But what's the advantage to rooting? This comes with Android Market (which presumably is upgraded to Google Play after activation). That seems to be the biggest reason to root most tablets.

(Plus, how? It doesn't have a forum on XDA.)

Rooting gives you control of your device. You can back it up using Titanium, remove apps that the vendor burned into the ROM, and so forth. You can also completely replace the systems ROM with one from an independent developer, giving you quicker access to new releases of Android.It's very likely that you can get Ice Cream Sandwich for this already.

Finally, you can install software that your vendor restricts, like wireless tethering software.

I run my phone and my galaxy tab rooted with stock roms. This gives me a stable device that I get to run the way I want.

ivanivanovich

Amazon's Kindle reading app is available on most tablet platforms (not WebOS or Linux). But if you have an actual Kindle device (which the Fire is), and if you have Amazon Prime, there is a free book-borrowing program.

ivanivanovich

By the way, typing the tags that let you use bold, italic, and the like in forums like this is a true pain with the stock keyboard on most tablets! Including the Kindle Fire, which I'm using at the moment.

shatb80

mmoconnor wrote:I have had major serious problems with it since the upgrade.

Until the upgrade I loved it and used it constantly. Since the upgrade I have completely stopped using it and I am considering selling it.

My favorite apps, including Jetflicks no longer work at all. Also the buttons on the frame no longer work and you are forced to use the software buttons inside the screen which significantly reduces the size of the already very small screen.

I went from loving this tablet to hating it because of the upgrade. I wish I could send it back and I certainly do not

recommend it.

I completely agree. I loved the heck out of this thing until the last update. It made the screen much smaller and now I can't even get passed the unlock screen. I used it daily as an e reader and to chat with my deployed husband, now I am so disappointed that it doesn't even work!

Foofster

The Online membership is shared across all of your annual Costco purchases - so that's not a fair comparison in your assessment. And even if you're not a member, surely you might find someone who is and buy it through them. So bottom line - the delta is Case and HDMI cable. A case is pretty cheap at RadioShack -$20. So for ~$30 total, you can get a new tablet vs refurbished. It's an individual call

zolttt

I love when woot sells tablets, I get to read everyone telling them that their tabletis better than other peoples tablets... FYI neither of these are even on woot. And them you get the people saying "wait for this tablet", when by the time you wait for that tablet 54 more will be out.

Anyways from what I have heard, this is a decent tablet, and gets good reviews, I recently just bought an iPad and love it, but was looking at this one before my purchase.

No I'm not saying don't buy this and buy an iPad instead

I don't know who put this dancing kitty here, but whoever did it. I thank you

joe43wv

zolttt wrote:I love when woot sells tablets, I get to read everyone telling them that their tabletis better than other peoples tablets... FYI neither of these are even on woot. And them you get the people saying "wait for this tablet", when by the time you wait for that tablet 54 more will be out.

Anyways from what I have heard, this is a decent tablet, and gets good reviews, I recently just bought an iPad and love it, but was looking at this one before my purchase.

johnvassel

Bought this for my wife before Christmas during a woot sale.
She loves it, the included case makes a great stand, she uses it for recipes, and all sorts of other functions. Recently got upgraded to Honeycomb, something samsung hasn't even managed to do for my verizon samsung tab.
We're in for another, this is a nice tablet.

Woots so far

3 B*O*C's

2 Leak Frogs

3 Screaming monkeys v2 (green)

bunch of other stuff that I just bought while waiting for these listed items

brayg

I bought one of these from Costco about 3 weeks ago for $189. I'm thrilled with it. I do have to note that I am not an experienced tablet user, so I have nothing to compare it to.

If I didn't already have one, I'd go for this.

*If* you have a Costco membership and it's not too far for you, they automatically extend all electronics warranties to 2 years and you have 30 days to return electronics once you've purchased. That alone might be worth the extra $30 (sans folio, but mine was around $12 on Amazon).

Indacup

I bought one for my wife, loved it so much (ran circles around the HP Tablet) I bought one for me...did the upgrade to honeycomb with no problem.

This devise does everything a person could want in a tablet...has built in remote app to allow me to control the TV/Sound system wile working...as well as mess with the sports bnar by turning their channels to the game I want.

This tablet is back ordered by everyone including Vizio...I am ordering a couple of these for my sister in law and husband.

gak0090

This is rootable, but sometimes rooting doesn't make it better. I think in this case you are better off sticking with the Visio updates. If you root it sometimes you lose functionality- for instance the IR blaster remote might not work right. Sometimes the drivers don't work quite as well and you get performance issues. With devices that are really common rooting works awesome (I have a couple Evo's that are rooted for my kids). For this device i would stick with Visio updates.

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/tablets/Vizio-Tablet.htm

Vizio went with Gingerbread because it afforded them more room for customization (Google still keeps tight reins on Honeycomb), and because there are many more OS 2.x apps in the Android Market vs. Honeycomb apps. Vizio plans to release a Honeycomb upgrade for their first tablet at some point, and they're also aggressive with firmware updates that improve performance and may add new apps (we've been testing their beta firmware releases on our unit). Even if you're not a techie, it's nice to know the company is continuingly working to improve the product. We noted a significant speed increase in the app launcher and tweaks to the IR blaster AV remote with these updates: the launcher went from sluggish to very responsive.

joulem

I have a rooted Android phone, and figured I'd do the same with this tablet.

Only thing is, once I got it, I let it sit for about a month before I actually opened the box.

Once I powered it on, it was asking to perform an update. In hindsight, I shouldn't have allowed that update to take place, as it sealed the possibility of rooting the device (at least as of this post, 4/7/2012 that's still the case).

So, if you plan on rooting it, don't perform the update it prompts you to do.

Having said that, I actually like the (non-rooted) device. I haven't had any major problems with it, with the exception of the built-in remote control app. I have a Vizio 32" 720p plasma TV. The remote control app is unreliable/buggy at best. I can't control my TV with it without the app crashing.

Outside of that, I have had a pretty good time using it. The battery life is great, and I regularly use Google+ on it, as well as NetFlix, Crackle, Fring, DropBox, Skype and several E-Reader apps.

Never used the Bluetooth. I use it on my wireless network at home, as well as having it tethered to my phone when I'm on-the-go.

Recently, another message popped up about an update. Deathly afraid to accept that, as the second I do, someone will figure out a way to root it (since the last update, but not after this most recent update). Also, I've seen quite a few people complaining about instability after the most recent update.

I'm just going to keep it where it is for now, and enjoy it. I still have the clear plastic screen on it for a little bit of extra protection.

The USB charging cord (that plugs into a larger wall plug adapter) could've been longer, but that's about the only other thing I would've changed.

sweenpc

I took advantage of this deal last year, and overall I'm very pleased. The screen is really, really nice and clear. The 8 inch form factor is great! I wish it were more popular. I don't think you can appreciate how nice the good points are until you use it.

I also picked up a blue tooth keyboard which works great with it!

However, it does lag now and then, and since the recent upgrade I've had to restart more often because it seems to lockup. The way it's internal memory is configured, you don't have as much space to install apps as you would expect. Using App2SD helps, but isn't perfect.

Last year I think this was a really good deal for the price. Right now, I think you can probably do better if you keep your eyes open. I've seen a lot of deals lately. Refurbed Kindle's, pre-owned TouchPads and Playbooks, etc. If you like to fiddle with installing different ROMs -- then those kinds of deals might be better for you.

However, if you want something that will work nicely out of the box, and you don't plan on installing every app you come across...then I'm sure you'll be happy with this deal. I just think that it would be more of a no-brainer if it were say $20 to $40 less.

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